[Vyacheslav Grinko]

Ruthless Aggression I'd say started after WM18. So many changes around that time: Name changed to WWE, brand split, WWE title design change, WHC debut, Lesnar pushed as face of the company.

When did it end? Not as defined. If you consider Ruthless Aggression to be defined by Lesnar and HHH's title runs from hell, then it ended at WrestleMania 21 with the Cena/Batista victories. Either that, or it ended in the summer of 08 when they went to PG.

 

[Choke2Death]

Yeah, I'd say it took place from 2002 (around May-June) and ended in 2007. Or even earlier, I would go for October 06 when they slightly changed the Raw set, logo and theme song. It officially ended when Benoit died imo.

 

[LateTrain27]

Yeah, it's definetly an era. I consider the Ruthless Agression Era to have begun with the Draft but I can't really pick a specific time when it ended other then it would have been some point during 2007 or 2008.

I personally didn't enjoy the first few years of the Ruthless Aggression era as much as the later years as Raw being dominated by HHH and Evolution started to bore me by around SummerSlam 2003 and Brock Lesnar dominating Smackdown bored me throughout 2003 and JBL started to become boring to me by the end of 2004. My favourite years of the Ruthless Aggression Era were 2005-2008 mainly because of Batista and Cena, DX, Edge and The Undertaker.

 

[Deptford]

I personally didn't enjoy the first few years of the Ruthless Aggression era as much as the later years as Raw being dominated by HHH and Evolution started to bore me by around SummerSlam 2003 and Brock Lesnar dominating Smackdown bored me throughout 2003 and JBL started to become boring to me by the end of 2004. My favourite years of the Ruthless Aggression Era were 2005-2008 mainly because of Batista and Cena, DX, Edge and The Undertaker.

Damn, I'm actually the exact opposite. The Batista, DX, Cena, Hardy, and Edge part of the RA bored me.
Evolution, Brock, Eddie, Benoit, Randy, Angle, Mysterio, JBL, and Bischop vs Austin were my fav parts of the RA.
late 2006-2009 was what turned me away from watching for a while actually. I don't see how someone can prefer that to the previous greatness of the RA. Damn... different strokes.

To answer OP, yes, it's even addressed by the WWE. It is an era but to say exactly when it started is kind of tricky. I'd say it was in came full circle when Brock showed up

 

[Choke2Death]

Agreed completely (apart from hating Cena and Edge since I found them to be great). RA in 2002-2005 was just awesome and it started to drop down in quality when Eddie died.

 

[CM Jewels]

A weird transitional era, but an era nonetheless.

 

[Panzer]

I was under the impression the RA Era ended in 2005 with the Cena/Batista victories. But at the start of 2008, you did get the HD sets and a bigger focus on the PG rating. It gets a little fuzzy for the PG/Reality timeline because the focus is still on the PG product yet we have a huge focus on social media and technology that we barely had years ago.

 

[Stannis Baratheon.]

i got into wrestling during the ruthless aggression era, and for me, it died when my interested began to die in 2007/2008.

 

[joeycalz]

Yeah, I'd say it took place from 2002 (around May-June) and ended in 2007. Or even earlier, I would go for October 06 when they slightly changed the Raw set, logo and theme song. It officially ended when Benoit died imo.

I actually 1000% agree with the Benoit statement. 2007/most of 2008 was a transition phase. 2009, right after the Orton/HHH angle is when they started cleaning up, save for everything Punk did on Smackdown, which theoretically is why he gained so many extra fans on top of those he already had.

 

[11Shareef]

Ruthless Aggression I'd say started after WM18. So many changes around that time: Name changed to WWE, brand split, WWE title design change, WHC debut, Lesnar pushed as face of the company.

When did it end? Not as defined. If you consider Ruthless Aggression to be defined by Lesnar and HHH's title runs from hell, then it ended at WrestleMania 21 with the Cena/Batista victories. Either that, or it ended in the summer of 08 when they went to PG.

My time line is similar. I let the AE ride out a little until WM18. They tried to keep it going, but it wasn't the same. The brand split was them officially saying, "alright this is new". I split what most people call the RA era into two. After WM 21-WM 26 I call the "Homecoming Era" (named after them coming back to USA).

I don't even call the PG Era an Era because WWE was PG before. Plus 2009 was really the deepest part of them playing it safe. I think after WM 27-now is a it's era. Looking at the show from now and 2009 you're clearly looking at a different product. New stage, 3 hours, longer storylines, Part timers being a thing, the rise of social media. It's just not the same show.

 

[Schrute_Farms]

Really loved 2002-2005 but after that I lost interest as a fan. There wasn't enough star power left to carry two brands, one was always lacking. Wasn't interested in Rey, Khali, Jeff Hardy and so on. I completely checked out in 2006 and didn't really watch at all again until 2010 and realized why I stopped.

 

[AJ_Styles_P1]

I loved that era, I used to love tuning into Smackdown every Friday to see Mysertio first off, then Batista, and other things like Hardy/MVP, Kennedy, exc.

Just great stuff. I would say it ended around 07-08. When WWE changed the sets & started to have more of a corporate feel. Thats around when my days of being a diehard WWE fan started to end.

 

[Oxidamus]

I don't know about calling it the "Ruthless Aggression era" tbh.

How did something that Cena said become the name of an era he wasn't even the sole top guy in? I don't get it.
Unless of course someone else said it - but I only remember Cena.

 

[Chrome]

I don't know about calling it the "Ruthless Aggression era" tbh.

How did something that Cena said become the name of an era he wasn't even the sole top guy in? I don't get it.
Unless of course someone else said it - but I only remember Cena.

 

[Quasi Juice]

Bit of an odd thing to say but I didn't really like it when they went HD and changed the set. It gave the show an extremely polished look which doesn't really fit the rough, tough environment of pro wrestling. Obviously they had to go along with the times, I get that. It didn't help that shortly after the HD set was introduced they went full on PG, starting one of the worst periods ever.

 

[Rustee]

Lawler is so good in that segment. Chiming in with his stupid remarks like a total dick, he played his role so perfectly.

 

[validreasoning]

its funny that people like to remember 2002-03 with fond memories (as i do having been ringside for a number of shows that year including summerslam 2002) but looking back at reaction at the time everyone pretty much hated that time period especially late 2002-2003 when wwe was getting torn apart by fans and journalists.

 

[Oxidamus]

Any idea what date that was Chrome?

I don't have the time right now to watch 13 minutes of it so I'll assume Vince actually does say "ruthless aggression" somewhere in it. So if he did actually say it, it's pretty much fair to say it is an era.

I do remember Cena saying it in his debut match against Angle though.

 

[BronzeWarrior1989]

Yeah, I consider it from Mid 2002 - Wrestlemania 21.

It was the time as a kid I was mostly into wrestling and would stay up late to watch Raw and PPVs

The roster back then was awesome with guys like Lesnar, Eddie, Benoit, Evolution etc.